Top 10 Dinosaur Movies: Ranked

Whenever the "Movie Madness" team wants to flex its dinosaur chops, we call upon amateur paleontologist Corey Johns. Today, Corey weighs in on the cream of the cretaceous crop. 

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I've recently finished binge-watching the entire first season of Camp Cretaceous, which just dropped on Netflix. It's fun. It follows a fresh group of characters simultaneously during the events of the movie Jurassic World. For a series based on bringing dinosaurs back to life through genetic modification, were some parts unrealistic stupid parts? Yes. But, it was still great to have something from the much beloved Jurassic Park franchise out there and it does really get me pumped for more dinosaur content. So, in the form of this list, I'm sharing some of my own.

While the JP franchise is so beloved, it does make you wonder why there have not been any other halfway decent attempts at a film franchise about dinosaurs. It would be pretty difficult of course. Jurassic Park set such a high bar. And because that bar has been set so high, there is an unwritten law in Hollywood that they own dinosaurs and nobody will support, back, or fund another realistic-looking big-budget dinosaur franchise. There have been attempts to make Turok into a movie for over a decade, but it simply hasn't and just doesn't seem like it will ever come to fruition because of that unwritten rule. 

That is why the dinosaur movies we do occasionally get are either very low-budget, fully animated, or are remakes, like Land of the Lost. But, there still are some good ones out there and here are my top 10 that I have seen.

10. Dinosaur Island

You likely haven't heard of this 2014 Australian movie. Despite my love of dinosaurs, I myself only even heard about it when listening to the podcast I Know Dino (which you can probably guess gets excessively deep in their references). I was only able to find this one on YouTube. It was better than I expected. There were some slow moments, but, this movie carried an interesting enough plot, and the dinosaurs looked absolutely fantastic, which really elevated the movie above its flaws. After all, dinosaur movies are about being wowed. These dinosaurs were brought to life on screen.

9. Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs

The Ice Age franchise is a load of fun and Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs was a tremendous chapter. It brought something new to the franchise, great new characters, and the addition of dinosaurs really took it to a new level. While some critics of the ice age period do complain about the addition of dinosaurs removing franchise from its commitment to its own era, this list is about dinosaurs. The dinosaurs brought new adventure, threat, and excitement to the franchise.

8. Disney's Dinosaurs

When this movie first came out, I remember being underwhelmed. It also seemed way shorter than it actually was. But I rewatched recently, and I am happy I did. It's really, really good. What I enjoy most about it was that it didn't focus solely on the most popular dinosaurs. It would have been easy to make the main carnivore a T-Rex. It would have been easy to make the main character a triceratops. But, the movie took some solid risks. Carnotaurus' are awesome looking and while it was very much computer animated and not CGI, it still looked really good. Having the main character be an Iguanodon, which was the first dinosaur ever discovered, was also a cool move. His friends also included the lesser known Styracosaurus, Pachyrhinosaurus, and Struthiomimus. They were great additions to the cinematic world of dinosaurs in a movie that had a pretty solid plot with well-built tension.

7. The Land Before Time

Okay, you're probably yelling at your computer that I have this beloved movie ranked so low. It's nostalgic, and that certainly boosts it. It has a very notable heart-stinging moment and a fun adventure with characters that we all remember and love. My favorite was Ducky. But, of all these Dinosaur movies on this list, I'm in the mood to watch this one least often. It is quite kiddy, which is just fine, but now me as an adult, I tend to want a bit more out of my dinosaur movies.

6. We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story

I just said of all the movies on this list, that I'm least often in the mood to watch The Land Before Time and now I mention We're Back!. Yes, I'd probably more often choose to watch this goofy dino movie where a T-Rex uses a pickup truck as a skateboard on the Hudson Bridge before the adventures of Little Foot. They are different movies. This one sells out trying to be goofy and fun and it hooks me every time. Just like when I wrote the article about my favorite shark movies, dinosaur movies are also best when they are the supporting characters. The movie absolutely has talking dinosaurs as a big focal point, but the plot actually centralizes around Louie, Cecilia Nuthatch, and deranged circus Ringmaster Professor Screweyes. The dinosaurs in that movie consistently elevate every aspect of the plot. Plus, the John Goodman classic song “Roll Back the Rock (to the Dawn of Time)” is catchy.

5. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

 
We've reached the top five and there are all five Jurassic Park movies left... how predictable, even for me. I love all of these movies, and even the ones that aren't perceived as all that great are still cream of the crop when it comes to dinosaur movies. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is my least favorite of the franchise, and had I made this list in 2018 when this first came out, then I honestly would have had it ranked much closer to No. 10. I didn't love this movie all that much to begin with. But, the more I watch it the more I see its brilliance. The franchise needed this movie. The dinosaurs needed to be brought off the island and spread throughout the human world. Having greedy corporate executives buying DNA to replicate everywhere is what is going to make dinosaurs go global; not Maisie opening a door. It's a dark film, and I'm not a huge fan of the GMO/hybrid dinosaurs like the Indoraptor because there are so many awesome real dinosaurs that have still not hit the big screen. But, the dinosaurs still look amazing, I care about the characters, and the drama and sense of danger in this movie is tremendous. It has problems that I could write another huge long article about, but I've really come to appreciate and enjoy this movie more and more over time.

4. Jurassic Park III

There are Jurassic fans who absolutely hate this movie. I don't get it. Sure, the plot was rushed. It has a talking velociraptor as well – often viewed as the official jump the shark moment for the original trilogy – and many refuse to accept that they made a decision to have the Spinosaurus take over as the new biggest, baddest dinosaur. Personally, I've come to absolutely love the Spinosaurus. It's a truly fascinating dinosaur. In reality, it never could defeat a T-Rex, but, in reality we aren't extracting 100 million year old DNA from mosquitoes and cloning dinosaurs (editors note from Brett: or ARE we?). Even when I first saw the movie as a T-Rex loving kid, I wasn't upset about the T-Rex getting bumped in this one. The Spinosaurus looked awesome and it was new and brought a new sense of danger to the movie. They also added Pterodactyls and I thought that was an awesome addition. Jurassic Park III is certainly a movie that pales in comparison to the original. But, it also had everything I really wanted. It had a group of people, including the return of Dr. Alan Grant, stuck on an island with dinosaurs, and they were in constant danger trying to find their way to safety. Enjoy it for what it is.

3. Jurassic World

This was an absolutely fantastic relaunch of the franchise I love to much. They opened the park! I got to see Jurassic Park and what it could be! The gyrospheres in the valley with a heard, the lagoon with a mosasaurus show, an aviary, a petting zoo, the monorail around the entire place so you can see everything! Chris Pratt elevated himself to megastar with this movie. Bryce Dallas Howard (we can talk about her magic shoes another time) had a tremendous character arch in this, going from basically being a robot who stopped caring about dinosaurs to realizing and respecting these are living creatures, whether they were created in a lab or not. The villains are great too. Vince D'Onofrio was brilliant as Vic Hoskins. Dr. Wu's character development and twist was great. Can we give some extra props to Jake Johnson as Lowery Cruthers crushing it in every scene he was in? This movie brought us the magic the original one brought. The late Irrfan Khan was amazing as Simon Masrani being both a fun-loving park owner who just wanted to make people happy and a businessman who makes tough business decisions. The evolution of the raptors was very fun and the new and updates score for this movie was beautiful.

2. The Lost World: Jurassic Park

While it does not take the top spot on this list, I absolutely love this movie. It doesn't get the love it deserves really, because it took a really different tone and many didn't like it. Plus, the third act was shoehorned into the movie and you can tell. And let's not talk about the gymnastics scene. But, when you really look at what this movie is, it is very easy to fall in love with it. TLW is a much darker movie than the original, because it is coming from the perspective of Ian Malcolm. The first movie, even in its darker moments, still had the sense of wonder that came with seeing dinosaurs on screen. It was told with Dr. Alan Grant as the main character. He loved dinosaurs. His face when he was laying on the Triceratops showed that even though he expressed concern in the movie about bringing dinosaurs back to live, he was filled with joy when he got to see and touch one. But Malcolm is a different character. He is a chaos theorist. He only saw the negatives in the park and from the beginning of TLW it was clear this movie was going to about the pure chaos of going back to the island. And again, the acting was great. Pete Postelhwaite as Roland Tembo was tremendous and worked perfect as the apex hunter against Malcolm, who experienced dinosaurs and new it was okay to be afraid. Vince Vaughn as Nick Van Owen was character I like watching on screen. The “bad guys” Peter Ludlow and Dieter Stark were over the top jerks, but, I still had an investment in seeing what happened to them. This movie brought the concept of bringing dinosaurs to the mainland, and did it. It brought up the concept of really monetizing the dinosaurs purely as assets. This movie really set up the Jurassic World trilogy two decades before it came out.

Honorable Mention: The Good Dinosaur

I liked this movie, but, lets be honest...is it really a dinosaur movie? Okay, we can say that we don't actually know where evolution would have taken dinosaurs had they had another 65 million years if the asteroid never hit earth causing their extinction. Maybe they would become agricultural and start plowing farms and be able to talk...unlikely, but, who knows. With that said, though, the Good Dinosaur has a pretty touching story and good character development, but, nothing about the movie required the main character be a dinosaur. You could simply have made Arlo a giraffe, or a zebra, and the movie would have played out the same exact way. Replace the T-Rex in Jurassic Park with a Lion, or Rex in We're Back! with a silverback gorilla and they are completely different movies. The Good Dinosaur is a movie about a dinosaur, and I did enjoy it probably more than some of these other movies on this list, but, it is tough to put it on as a dinosaur movie.

1. Jurassic Park

Scenes that make you go "nope nope nope nope"

No big surprise to anyone: my favorite dinosaur movie is Jurassic Park. When this movie came out, it took a huge, huge risk. It wasn't clear if people would want to see a movie with dinosaurs running around killing people. So, they focused on making an incredible story. Jurassic Park is actually a movie about corporate espionage and the fine lines between scientific advancement and scientific takeover. The movie had a remarkable cast. The actors were all notable, but none of them distracted from the plot. Try to imagine Jurassic Park being the Tom Cruise movie about dinosaurs. Or if Bruce Willis, coming off Die Hard, was running around a jungle trying to escape from a T-Rex. Jurassic Park took very thoughtful steps in becoming what it was and director Steven Spielberg was masterful in using what he knew worked decades before when Jaws became a legendary movie. (It also shouldn't surprise you that Jurassic Park and Jaws are two of my all-time favorite movies, and it's nearly impossible for me to pick between the two). As I wrote in the blog about my favorite shark movies, Jaws worked so well because the movie was character-driven, and it was the threat of the sharks that continually elevated the movie when it needed tension. The dinosaurs didn't even have all that much scene time in Jurassic Park... just like how the shark in Jaws was barely ever actually onscreen. But the scenes they were in, were simply incredible. Jurassic Park still has CGI that is world-class even by today's standards. The mix of CGI and auto-erotica animatronics truly brought dinosaurs to live on the screen in a movie that had a thrilling plot from start to finish.